


Interrogation

by amythis



Category: Broadchurch
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-14 20:18:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14776571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amythis/pseuds/amythis
Summary: When their parents catch Tom and Daisy kissing, it's time for a Miller & Hardy interrogation.  Set post-Series-Three.





	Interrogation

"It was just a snog," Tom Miller said. "I don't know what you're going on about."

"Oh, just a snog. Lovely. Is this what you kids call hooking up?"

As always, Ellie was distracted by what Hardy's accent did to the vowels, like "who-king," but she was not so distracted that she didn't know that he'd just stumbled. Normally, she'd have thought he was trying to trap the suspects, tripping them by seeming to trip himself, but he was so awkward about social interactions, she was afraid he was just being Alec. She wasn't surprised that both teens laughed.

"Dad, it's not as if you caught us shagging."

"Shut it. Both of you. Have you shagged?"

Tom looked at Ellie. She definitely didn't always understand her son, but she got this. And she'd fallen automatically into her role of good cop to Hardy's bad cop, not to mention that she was the mother of the boy and was supposed to react differently than the father of the girl.

"They'll need to talk if they're going to answer questions."

"I'm not stupid, Miller. And neither are they, usually. They know they can talk to answer."

"Not without my solicitor present," Tom cracked.

"That is exactly the sort of thing I don't want you to say."

"Did you mean have we shagged each other or ever?"

Ellie sighed. "Daisy, you should know not to volunteer more information than he's asked."

"Whose side are you on, Miller?"

"These are our children. There shouldn't be any sides."

"Since when did you become a permissive parent? You're the one who told me to tear up Daisy's train ticket."

The girl looked at Ellie. "So it's your fault I'm stuck in Broadchurch."

"Thanks loads," Tom grumbled.

"Tommy, I didn't mean—"

"Tommy?!" Hardy's accent and indignation did remarkable things to those two syllables, but Ellie couldn't let herself get too distracted.

"What exactly is the nature of your relationship?" Ellie asked gently.

"We're mates," Tom said.

"Mates who snog?" Hardy said.

"It was the first time," his daughter said. "And we're both virgins."

"Daise, my mum's right. Don't tell them more than they ask."

"What's the point in drawing this out? Dad, I told you I didn't want to stay here. The kids at school still gossip about me because of that picture."

Daisy had taken a topless selfie, which a male classmate had found on her mobile and distributed. Her father had threatened the boy and his best mates, but DI Hardy couldn't stop school gossip.

"And someone asked me if I'm going to pose for Tom."

"Oh, Christ," Ellie muttered. Her son had been caught distributing actual pornography a couple months before.

"Tom stuck up for me. He said I was too classy for real smut."

"Ah, so chivalry isn't dead. How inspiring!"

Ellie ignored Hardy's snark. She softly asked Daisy, "So were you kissing him out of gratitude?"

"No, I just wondered what it'd be like."

"To kiss a mate?"

"No, to kiss anyone. And Tom wondered, too."

"Shut it, Daise."

"No one tells my daughter to shut up but me. Understood, Tommy?"

"Understood." Tom finally looked a little intimidated.

"So let me get this straight. Thanks to technology, you two know way too much about sex."

"Dad, don't have a go at modern civilisation again."

"Sh. Yet somehow in the real, non-cyber world, you'd arrived at sixteen years of age without snogging."

"Honestly, Dad, you're a fine one to talk about inexperience. You couldn't even get through a dinner with the woman from the dating app."

"We are not discussing my personal life. And I'm not inexperienced. I'm just shy."

This time, Ellie joined in the teens' laughter, although she felt guilty about it.

"You are on their side, Miller."

"I'm not. Tom, it's all right to be curious. And to be honest, it's a relief to come home to a crisis this small." She didn't have to list all the other crises she'd dealt with in the last three or four years. "But I do want you two to be careful. Affection, especially between friends, can be tricky."

"Is that why you won't hug my father?"

Ellie stared at Daisy. "What?"

"I asked him once if there was anything between you two and he said, 'She won't even hug me. Yeah, all right, we shared a hotel bed once but I didn't take off my suit.' " Daisy perfectly captured her father's accent, although she'd never been to Scotland.

Tom snorted. "Talk about answering more than the question asked."

Now Ellie turned and stared at Hardy. "You told her all that?"

"I was proving how platonic we are."

"Tom told me what you two were accused of in court."

During Joe's trial, the defence claimed that Hardy and Miller had framed her husband because they were having a torrid affair. Poor Tom at thirteen had had to deal with that, along with having to accept that his father had indeed killed Tom's best friend. Ellie felt like this was a time of light compared to then.

"Daisy, you know that was just lies. Like what the kids say about you."

"I know. And my dad clearly isn't your type. Or you'd have at least snogged him by now."

"We're not a couple of hormone-mad teenagers," Daisy's dad said. "And we don't just snog people out of curiosity." 

"Why do you snog? When you snog I mean?" Tom asked.

"You mean me personally or adults in general?"

"Just answer the question, Dad."

"Whose interrogation is this anyway?"

Ellie took the question, although she wasn't sure if it'd been intended for both of them. "Generally, adults snog when there's an attraction and a potential for some kind of future, not necessarily long-term."

"He's too skinny, isn't he?"

"And Mum's got that overbite."

"You, go to your room! Daisy, go wait in your dad's car."

Both teens obeyed immediately.

When she looked at Hardy, he seemed impressed. "Miller, I could kiss you." He'd said that once before, as a throwaway.

"You could but won't."

"I'm your boss."

"That didn't stop you with your ex-wife."

"Things got worse between us when I became her boss."

"Then don't marry me."

"Like I'd risk putting those two delinquents in the same household."

They both laughed.

"You don't fancy me, do you?"

"You are too skinny. And surly." She was aware she was evading the question.

"I like your overbite. When you smile, you look like a sweet little rabbit."

"God, Alec, you really are rubbish at chat-ups!"

"I told you years ago, I hate my first name."

"I'm about to snog you, so I can't keep calling you Hardy."

"Why are you about to snog me, Miller?"

"Just curious."

Earlier, their children had remained on her sofa, although not nearly as close as when they'd walked in. Ellie took one armchair, Hardy the other, positioning it so that they were almost as close as they'd be at an interrogation table. She now had to reposition her chair to get at a good snogging angle.

"Should I move?" he whispered nervously.

"Stay where you are."

He still leaned forward when she leaned in and he wasn't passively kissed.

Afterwards, she whispered, "I do fancy you, Zander."

He smiled, maybe at the nickname, definitely an improvement over the "Shitface" that SOCO Brian and the others called him. "Then perhaps we should try it with tongues."

This time the kiss went on long enough for her to think of all the reasons why they shouldn't be doing this, including that they'd both been betrayed by former spouses. But she was willing to trust Alec, the most decent man she'd ever met. And possibly the best snogger.

Five-year-old Fred Miller had been put to bed early by his favourite babysitter, but he'd heard her chatting with his big brother when Tom came home. Fred drifted off but when he woke, it was still dark out. He noticed the light on in the living room, so he got out of bed to see if Daisy or Tom would get him a glass of water.

But it wasn't Tom and Daisy snogging like last time. "Uncle Alec, will you read me a story?" Mummy's friend's accent made stories more fun.

The two adults sprung apart like someone had thrown water on them. Fred decided not to ask Mummy about the kiss, not yet anyway.


End file.
